MonaVie Raises $100k for Anti-Poverty Drive in Brazil

MonaVie is used to promoting healthy food products on television shows such as “The Dr. Oz Show”. But lately, the Utah-based company has been focusing on raising funds to help the disenfranchised in Brazil.

The company recently obtained $100,000 from various charitable sources who want to help alleviate the effects of poverty through the MORE Project, which stands for MonaVie Operation Rescue.

In June, the non-profit provided 5,090 meals a week, including 700 servings of MonaVie, to hungry children and families living in squalor in the mountainous South American city of Sao Paulo. Additionally, the philanthropic effort has enabled MORE to enroll 529 children in educational programs.

Credit: MORE Project

In May, MonaVie held a regional event which was attended by more than 7,000 people, many of whom live in shanty towns under dangerous conditions. Many areas in Sao Paulo, including shanty towns in the hills, are ruled by drug lords. Police authorities often don’t bother to patrol such areas.

CEO Mauricio Bellora shared that his company’s mission is to create “A More Meaningful Life,” which he said involved changing people’s lives for the better.

Michele Yakashiro traveled to Brazil all the way from Canada to help with the initiative. “I sponsor two children through the MORE Projects’ Sponsor-A-Child program. In fact, my first trip from Vancouver, Canada to this beautiful country of Brazil solidified my continued contributions to the project,” said Yakashiro. “The slum that these children live in is dangerous and volatile. Many of them have seen things that no child should ever have to see and have felt pain that no child ever deserves to feel.”

MonaVie was launched in 2005 and supplies the health market with nutritious products that are often showcased on national television. In 2011, the Utah-based company received the Utah Genius Award for innovation in trademark.

In the year of its founding, the company established the MORE Project which is described as “a non-profit with a mission to provide critical care and support for some of Brazil’s most overlooked and impoverished individuals and families.”

Since 2005, MonaVie and its distributors have contributed more than $14 million.

“The work they do here is not just a job, it’s a vocation, says Yakashiro. “Lives are being changed and the children have told me time and time again that they love coming to the MORE Project. They can step outside of their ‘normal’ surroundings into an environment where they can dream . . . . Despite difficult situations, attitudes and days we cannot give up on these kids.”

Marv Dumon covers current events on several news sites. He previously worked in corporate finance and Six Sigma. Marv holds BA, BBA and MPA degrees from the University of Texas at Austin. | marvin.dumon@gmail.com... View full profile ›